America and Britain: Was There Ever a Special Relationship?

Britain's political and military elite has for decades nurtured the idea that enduring ties bind the interests of London and Washington, in good times and bad. Irrespective of the end of the Cold War, the 9/11 attacks and the economic rise of the East, these links are allegedly impregnable. But how accurate a picture is this? Are the British engaged in a monumental act of self-delusion?

Guy Arnold investigates the 'American disease' at the heart of Whitehall, which, he argues, has tied Briti...